Water Consumption

Although the only natural input to any surface water system is precipitation within its watershed,
the total quantity of water in that system at any given time is also dependent on many other factors.
These factors include storage capacity in lakes, wetlands and artificial reservoirs, the permeability
of the soil beneath these storage bodies, the runoff characteristics of the land in the watershed, the
timing of the precipitation and local evaporation rates.
All of these factors also affect the proportions of water lost.

Important
The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle or H2O cycle, describes the continuous movement of
water on, above and below the surface of the Earth. Water can change states among liquid, vapor, and
solid at various places in the water cycle. Although the balance of water on Earth remains fairly
constant over time, individual water molecules can come and go, in and out of the atmosphere.
The water moves from one reservoir to another, such as from river to ocean, or from the ocean to the
atmosphere, by the physical processes of evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration,
runoff, and subsurface flow. In so doing, the water goes through different phases: liquid, solid, and
gas.

Important
If all U.S. households installed water-saving features, water use would decrease by 30 percent, saving an estimated 5.4 billion gallons per day.
This would result in dollar-volume savings of $11.3 million per day or more than $4 billion per year.
Water-conserving fixtures installed in U.S. households in 1998 alone have saved 44 million gallons
of water every day, resulting in total dollar-value savings of more than $33.6 million per year.
Average household water use annually (including outdoor): 127,400 gallons
Average daily household water use (including outdoor): 350 gallons
Daily indoor per capita water use is 69.3 gallons. Here is how it breaks down.

Important
It is estimated that 69% of worldwide water use is for irrigation, with 15-35% of irrigation
withdrawals being unsustainable.[5] It takes around 3,000 litres of water, converted from liquid to
vapour, to produce enough food to satisfy one person's daily dietary need. This is a considerable
amount, when compared to that required for drinking, which is between two and five litres. To produce
food for the now over 7 billion people who inhabit the planet today requires the water that would fill
a canal ten metres deep, 100 metres wide and 7.1 million kilometres long – that's enough to circle the
globe 180 times.

Important
It is estimated that 8% of worldwide water use is for household purposes.
These include drinking water, bathing, cooking, sanitation, and gardening.
Basic household water requirements have been estimated by Peter Gleick at around 50 liters per person per day, excluding water for gardens.
Drinking water is water that is of sufficiently high quality so that it can be consumed or used without risk of immediate or long term harm.
Such water is commonly called potable water. In most developed countries, the water supplied to households,
commerce and industry is all of drinking water standard even though only a very small proportion is actually consumed or used in food preparation.

Important
Desalination is an artificial process by which saline water (generally sea water) is converted to fresh
water. The most common desalination processes are distillation and reverse osmosis. Desalination is
currently expensive compared to most alternative sources of water, and only a very small fraction of
total human use is satisfied by desalination. It is only economically practical for high-valued uses
(such as household and industrial uses) in arid areas.
The most extensive use is in the Persian Gulf.